As the world marks International Human Rights Day on the 10th of December, CARAM Asia launches an online petition campaign seeking crucial support and commitment from every employer of households to grant a weekly paid day off to their migrant domestic worker (MDW). On this occasion, CARAM Asia, a regional network of 34 NGOs and trade unions across 17 countries in Asia, makes the call to governments across the globe to respect the rights and dignity of migrant workers especially domestic workers. Continue reading ‘Asia, Human rights for migrant domestic workers’

Worker’s rights groups in Sri Lanka are asking for mechanisms to be introduced into the EU’s GSP+ trade scheme, to allow trade benefits to reach workers. ALaRM, a grouping of trade unions and non-governmental organisations, today (November 12, 2009), at a press conference, pointed out that the EU’s GSP+ preferential trade scheme has no inbuilt provision to ensure distribution of trade benefits to workers. Continue reading ‘EU GSP+ not benefit workers in Sri Lanka’

The migrant worker experience is one that is increasingly typical. Let’s start with myself. I am now back in the Philippines, but I spent nearly 20 years as a political exile in the United States during the Marcos dictatorship. During that time I survived by working as a journalist, teaching, doing research, and taking on odd jobs in different American cities. Continue reading ‘The migrant condition’

There are three different Dubais, all swirling around each other. There are the expats; there are the Emiratis, headed by Sheikh Mohammed; and then there is the foreign underclass who built the city, and are trapped here. They are hidden in plain view. You see them everywhere, in dirt-caked blue uniforms, being shouted at by their superiors, like a chain gang – but you are trained not to look. It is like a mantra: the Sheikh built the city. The Sheikh built the city. Workers? What workers? Continue reading ‘The dark side of Dubai’